A prison break in venezuela has killed 68 people, most of them prisoners.

It seems like barely a day goes by without a new crisis in Venezuela. The economy has collapsed. The country is desperately short of food and medicine. And now we have news of another tragedy — a fire in a police station that officials say killed 68 people. Many details around the fire have not been officially confirmed. NPR's Philip Reeves, though, has been monitoring this story from Rio de Janeiro. Phil, good morning.

PHILIP REEVES, BYLINE: Good morning.

KING: So what do we know right now about this fire?

REEVES: Well, it happened in the prison cells of a big police station in Valencia. That's a city about a hundred miles west of the capital, Caracas. Reports say that disturbances broke out inside the cells. There's a report that a police officer got shot in the leg by one of the prisoners. Prisoners set fire to mattresses. The fire got out of control and became so severe that rescuers had to punch a hole in the wall to try to get people out. The chief prosecutor of Venezuela is sayi.

I think arson caused casualties and property loss not only, also caused damage to our heart, because at that time the arson, brought harm to oneself, also brought harm to others. Before we do anything should consider the consequences.